Kathmandu. China has started to produce climate-resistant potatoes. Chinese scientists have succeeded in the practice of making climate-resistant potatoes.
China has produced climate-resistant potatoes at the International Potato Center located in the northwestern region of Beijing, the capital of China. The team of the center’s scientist Li Jiping has produced egg-shaped potatoes that hatched at a temperature three degrees Celsius higher than the normal temperature for growing potatoes. These potatoes, weighing only 136 grams, are half the weight of the average potato found in China.
It is estimated that the temperature of the earth will increase by the end of this century. According to the same estimate, Chinese scientists have succeeded in growing potatoes at high temperatures. It is expected that these potatoes grown at high temperatures will protect against future food insecurity due to climate change.
China is the largest potato producer in the world. Potatoes are considered to be the most important food item for the world’s food security. Potatoes are a vegetable grown in cold places. However, as climate change increases the temperature of the earth, there is a crisis in potato production.
Scientist Li and his team have been on a three-year campaign to grow potatoes at high temperatures. The team grew potatoes at temperatures three degrees Celsius higher than the average in Inner Mongolia and northern Hebei. These two regions are the highlands for Chinese potatoes.
Scientist Li worries that farmers will stop growing potatoes as the earth warms. “I worry about what will happen in the future,” he says. If temperatures increase, farmers will reduce potato cultivation and this will increase food insecurity.”
According to their research, potato plants grow 10 days faster when the temperature is increased than at normal temperature. The yield is half of what it used to be.
This year, the potato production was not good in Inner Mongolia due to excessive rain. Keeping in mind the seasonal cycle that changes every year, Chinese scientists are developing climate-resistant potatoes. From Reuters